The Pirates are now 5-0 against the Chicago Cubs in 2010, and have won seven in a row against the North Siders overall. Quite a turnaround from the way the Cubs dominated the Bucs for the last few years.

You had to know it would be a good day when Aki Iwamura led off the game with a walk. Yep, Iwamura was somewhat productive today, walking twice. He still went 0-for-2 and hit into a DP, but it’s an improvement. Anyway, the offense picked up right where it left off yesterday, scoring three runs in the first on a Cutch single and Ryan Church double.

Ryan Dempster settled down after that and kept the bats completely silent for the rest of his afternoon, but the three-run cushion would prove to be just enough for Paul Maholm. Paul had a rough third and gave up both runs in that inning, but the Cubs bailed him out by sending Aramis Ramirez home from second on a base hit to left field. Church threw him out by a mile to preserve the lead.

Besides the third, Maholm pitched a nice game. He went six innings, didn’t walk anyone, struck out four, and allowed just the two runs on eight hits – an effort good enough for his third win of the year.

D.J. Carrasco and Joel Hanrahan were lights-out in the seventh and eighth, respectively, continuing the bullpen’s trend of pitching well in close games.

The Cubs could not say the same today about filthy Carlos Marmol, who gave up Jeff Clement’s third homer of the year in the top of the ninth. Marmol, who hadn’t given up a dinger this season and only gave up two last season, fired a fastball on the outside corner, and Clement beautifully went with the pitch and used his strength to blast it out to left for an opposite field shot. It was the kind of hit that makes you not want to give up on the guy.

That homer would be huge, because Octavio Dotel struggled to start the ninth. After one out, he walked Starlin Castro and threw three consecutive balls after really fooling Kosuke Fukudome on the first two strikes. Fukudome turned on the payoff pitch and dumped it into right for a triple, scoring Castro and putting the tying run on third with just one out. To make things worse, the top of the order was up for the Cubs.

Dotel came up big, though, and rang up two very impressive strikeouts of two hot hitters, Ryan Theriot and Marlon Byrd. That clinched the series for the Bucs, and they’re off to a very encouraging start on this road trip after a very depressing series against Cincinnati.